PopHorror Let's Get Scared
James Bickert and Brian K. Williams are two indie filmmakers that I have been following for the past couple years. When they announce new films, I genuinely get excited to see what they have come up with. A few months back, James and Brian launched a Kickstarter campaign for Amazon Hot Box, an exploitation film filmed in secret, with elements of women in prison films/spy films/zombies films and a wicked sense of humor. After backing the project, I spent months anxiously awaiting its release. That time has come, and here are my thoughts on Amazon Hot Box.
Amazon Hot Box is the latest film from Writer/Director James Bickert (Dear God No, Frankenstein Created Bikers) and Producer Brian K. Williams (Harvest Lake, Plank Face). The film stars Ellie Church (Headless 2015, Born Again 2017), Tristan Risk (American Mary 2012), Jett Bryant (Frankenstein Created Bikers 2016), Jordan Phipps (Close Calls 2017), Kelsey Carlisle (Headless 2015), Paul McComiskey (Dear God No 2011), Kris Donta, Janice Cygan, Alice Winkler (Space Babes From Outer Space 2017), Danielle Page (FrankenThug 2017), Rodney Leete (Frankenstein Created Bikers 2016), Aaron Beelner (The House with a Clock in its Walls 2018), Ben Bladon (Jacob’s Ladder 2019), Nick Hood (Frankenstein Created Bikers 2016), Samara Scott (But Deliver Us From Evil 2017), Billy Ratliff (Dear God No 2011), and Layla Heather Pendley (Strip Club Massacre 2017).
The official synopsis:
An innocent college student is tossed into a jungle hellhole where she must fight for her life against an evil wardress, psycho inmates, voodoo experiments and the incredible torture machine.
Amazon Hot Box is a batshit crazy mix of ideas, tossing together women in prison sleaze with spy film hijinks and Italian horror-influenced zombie gut munching, that all somehow gels into a fairly coherent whole while still containing the WTF factor that exploitation films are known for. I’m not sure how they pulled it off, but it all works due to the commitment of a cast filled with a veritable who’s who of indie horror talent who take all the craziness seriously. The film does a great job of using its talented cast to twist and break your expectation of what to expect from the characters.
Jett Bryant plays a fictionalized version of himself (or at least, I think so… To my knowledge, Jett isn’t a dope smuggler) and tends to steal every scene he’s in with his delivery of hilarious dialogue. After seeing Jett play shitty assholes in previous films, it was a nice change of pace to see him play such a laid back and hilarious role. I’m a huge fan of Tristan Risk (who isn’t) and I loved her in Amazon Hot Box. Her character, Val, is the hateful and abusive Queen Bitch of the prison population. The fact that Risk is able to make the audience hate Val so much, and then feel sorry for her in the later half of the film, is a testament to Tristan’s skill as an actress as well as Bickert’s writing. As a whole, the film does an amazing job at changing the way you feel about characters as it goes along, making you care for the ones you previously hated and vice versa.
The film feature insane amounts of nudity, violence and gore, including hearts getting ripped out, genital mutilation, throat slashings, stabbings, shootings, torture, and nude shower fist fights. Amazon Hot Box is one of those films where anyone could die at anytime, which disappointed me at first, as I didn’t get to see as much of some characters as I would have liked, but once I remembered the line of dialogue and tagline about life being cheap, I realized that that was the point. Everyone is expendable. Upon rewatching the film with this in mind, I was able to just go with it and enjoy it even more than the first time.
Final Thoughts
Amazon Hot Box is a film that offers a little something for everyone: zombies, ultra violence, nudity, shower scenes, torture, experiments, comedy, and sleaze galore. My advice is to check out the trailer, and if you have even the slightest bit of fun with that, then check out Amazon Hot Box.
